-Reforms under federal health care reform "have typically accounted for no more than 4 percentage points of the rate increases submitted to the division" recently.

-And Oregon regulators in some cases approved lower rate hikes than an insurer requested, due to the size of insurer's surpluses.

-Oregon, under a federal grant, is studying how to use its rate review authority to help lower medical costs.

And in much sunnier Tampa, the Insurance Information Institute's Robert Hartwig yesterday released a new report looking at long-term trends -- 80 years of them -- in the property/casualty insurance market. Claims paid since 1931, he said, total $12.5 trillion, after adjusting for inflation.

Among Hartwig's points: that "claim payouts in recent years are volatile but have reached a jagged plateau."